August 13, 2023
8 Minutes
Imagine your laptop stops working and you need technical assistance. You pick up your mobile phone and dial customer service to fix it. In the same way, most customers prefer to call a business to solve their queries. Telecalling services, both inbound and outbound, are a significant part of the BPO industry. If you’re thinking, “Inbound vs. outbound call centers, what’s the difference?” this blog post will answer that and more.
The BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry has many branches. One of its branches, customer service, is divided into two categories, namely, inbound and outbound calling. Businesses outsource their sales operations to these call centers according to their goals and requirements. In this post, we will cover the two types: inbound vs. outbound call centers, meaning their types and the difference between them.
To make your business successful, you must keep your customers happy, retain them, and gain new customers. This means providing solutions to their queries, updating them with new information, offering discounts, etc. Inbound and outbound calling is the answer to check all these tasks off your list. Lets begin by understanding what each one does and dive into inbound vs. outbound calling.
There are many different purposes for inbound and outbound calls. Based on these purposes and productivity required, they are further divided into several categories. Let’s explore some of them to better understand inbound vs. outbound call centers.
When receiving inbound calls, customer service representatives handle many queries and provide customers with the necessary assistance. These include:
Outbound call centers make outgoing calls to customers for various reasons. Here are some types of outbound calls:
To differentiate between the two types of call centers, you must first get a clear picture of inbound vs. outbound meaning. Inbound calls are calls made by customers for their queries or issues. Whereas outbound calls are the calls made by customer service agents to promote a product or service, follow up on previous interactions, etc. Let’s look at this table to establish the difference between the two call centers, i.e., inbound vs outbound call centers.
Inbound Call Centers receive incoming calls from customers. Inbound Call Centers provide solutions to customer queries and problems, receive complaints or feedback, and offer assistance. Whereas Outbound Call Centers make outgoing calls to customers. Outbound Call Centers promote products or services to potential prospects, follow up, remind them of appointments or due payments, and conduct surveys.
Whether you’re a business owner, an enthusiastic job seeker looking for opportunities to become a telecaller, or just curious to know more about call center services, an inbound and outbound call center job description helped you gain a better understanding of inbound vs outbound call centers.
An inbound call center agent, such as a Customer Service Associate (CSR), a technical support specialist, or an order processing specialist, performs the following functions:
An outbound call center rep, like a sales or telemarketing agent, fulfills these responsibilities:
These services are provided by inbound and outbound call centers, which help enterprises handle large volumes of incoming and outgoing calls, focus on their core competencies and keep the business running like clockwork. By outsourcing these secondary activities to SquadStack, companies like Upstox, Delhivery, Udaan, Moneyview, Choice, and many more have boosted their revenue, profitability, and growth.
SquadStack is one-stop solution for inbound and outbound calling. Access the best on-demand telecallers, the latest technology, CRM integration, quality assurance, and monitoring. Squadstack aims to provide you with a tailor-made solution for your needs and help you be at the top of your game. Book a demo with SquadStack!
How about a mix of inbound and outbound calls, meaning a hybrid call center? This helps companies benefit from both types of services. A business can go for any of the call centers from hybrid, inbound, IVR and outbound call centers, depending on its needs, budget, workforce requirements, etc. Now that you understand inbound vs outbound call centers, the difference, meanings, and types, you can leverage them for the growth and success of your business.
Inbound call centers handle incoming customer calls and resolve their problems relating to products or services. They also provide technical help in troubleshooting, assist in updating personal or account information and take feedback or complaints from customers.
An outbound call center makes outgoing calls to customers to promote products and services, update them with changes, remind them of payments, etc. They also collect data on potential customers, reach out to them, and close deals.
The direction of the calls makes the difference between an inbound and outbound call center. Inbound calls are received by companies to offer support and assistance. Outbound calls are made to customers to sell products and services, collect payments or make sales calls to potential clients.
A call center that is a blend of both inbound and outbound call centers is called a hybrid call center. It handles incoming calls from customers and provides them with all the necessary information or assistance required. It also makes outgoing calls for sales, telemarketing, surveying, collecting payments, etc.
BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) includes two types of processes which are Inbound and Outbound. They are used by BPO vendors to handle customers on their client’s behalf. They use phone calls, emails, social media, and other channels to communicate with customers and provide them with support in different ways.